Reid & Robie

Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

– Ibn Battuta, history’s most well-traveled man

Jobs in the travel industry look glamorous. They offer selfies without crowds at the Eiffel Tower, reduced rates for stays at five-star resorts and educational trips to Iceland and Costa Rica. Yet a successful career takes dedication and years of hard work. After four decades, I earned the designation of destination specialist and industry insider, but that level of expertise started with long hours at very low pay.

Working my way up

As a wide-eyed twenty-something, I worked for small tour operators without benefits. I didn’t have health insurance, a pension or 401k, yet I was classified as a manager and worked all hours with no overtime pay. Living at home, I struggled to make ends meet. While I promoted vacations to world-class beach resorts, I traveled to places like Wichita and El Paso, conscripting my parents to shuttle me to the airport so I didn’t have to take a cab or incur parking fees.

What I got in return was the opportunity to travel. On weekends, I flew standby to Puerto Vallarta and slept on a friend’s couch after a business trip to Houston. Determined to stay inside the insular, coveted world of travel, I devoured trade magazines and kept up with changing names and industry trends.

My entrée into the profession took place following airline deregulation. Travel agents still wrote tickets by hand and kept airline plates locked in a safe in the back office. They spent years learning complicated reservation systems like Sabre and Worldspan and used a telephone-sized book called Hotel & Travel Index to research room categories and rates. Back then, travel agencies were found in every strip center with brochures displayed in the window. Fax machines were used to communicate across international lines while a national, new 800 system kept long-distance bills to a minimum.

As my career advanced, the responsibilities increased. My territory expanded and I marketed destinations across seven continents. I traveled more frequently, often up to three weeks a month, visiting clients, attending conferences and meeting the movers and shakers in travel. When I wasn’t on the clock, I dragged Robie to distant points to discover what made a city unique and a hotel worth someone’s hard-earned dollars.

Industry changes

When the internet launched in the ‘90s, travel was one of the first industries to feel its impact. After 9/11 the transformation progressed at frightening speed. Brick and mortar agencies closed. Tenured agents retired. And with them, years of experience and knowledge.

It was time to take a step back, and Robie and I soon set sail around the Caribbean. When we returned, the world looked different. Skyrocketing unemployment and plunging home values turned the American dream upside down.

The travel industry wasn’t immune, but what mattered hadn’t changed. The key to selling travel remained what it had always been – about forging relationships. Still, it was a decade before the agent revival brought home-based advisors to the forefront backed by large host agencies handling back-office administration.

When Robie retired and we decided to sell our home to live on the road, I might have spent many years traveling, but life as perpetual nomads wasn’t the same as a business trip or holiday. That’s why we created Reid & Robie. To show others how to make a roving retirement reality and explain what day-to-day life is really like while sharing destination tips and budget strategies.

What travel blogs do and don’t do

When we launched our website, I turned to other travel blogs for inspiration. I found niches designed for Jane Austen superfans dreamily recreating 18^th-century English manor escapes and gap-year backpackers seeking the next full moon party. There were blogs dedicated to catchphrases like “sustainable travel” and “eco-tourism.” But what did that really mean? In the end, I found too many sites offering pretty pictures with little substance. They might inspire travel dreams, but they were designed to make money and earn the author free trips.

When planning a short visit to Naples, an Italian city Robie and I had never seen, I turned to an award-winning site to read “How To Spend One Day In Naples – Things To Do, Where To Eat And How To Get Around.” Despite the unnecessary practice of capitalizing every word in the title, I could (almost) overlook the annoying grammatical error if I learned something useful from the post. Yet in the tips for “How To Get Around” (sic), the author offered the following information for navigating the chaotic city in a single day:

The best way to get around Naples and see everything is by foot. This is the easiest way to see all the attractions and things to do outlined in the one day in Naples itinerary, plus you may discover some hidden gems along the way.

Naples also has a good public transport system that you can use if walking isn’t for you. Public transport is a low cost and quick way to get around.

Four sentences and two whole paragraphs that told me absolutely nothing about how to use Naples’ extensive public transportation system to maximize our time during a short stay. There was no mention of catching a bus to Capodimonte or taking the train to save time getting to the Castel Sant’Elmo. Instead, the only advice I got was to put one foot in front of the other.

Did that mean all the author’s recommendations were located together in the same neighborhood? Walkable from the central train station to facilitate coming and going on the same day? Or best explored in the order listed? Your guess is as good as mine because the blogger didn’t expound or provide a map.

How travel blogs are written

The truth is many top-rated travel influencers don’t experience a destination the same way you and I do. They don’t spend hours researching attractions and putting together transportation logistics. Instead, these “experts” visit a destination for free and then post flashy pictures with links that earn them a commission.

They go on free walking tours, stay in hotel suites gratis, receive complimentary massages and eat at the best restaurants without worrying about the tab. Along the way, they’re chauffeured around town or following guides through rambling city streets so they can’t explain how to get around Naples in a day.

Sponsored by hotels and tourist boards, these trips often include roundtrip air, accommodations, meals and all transportation in exchange for positive press. Designed with carefully curated itineraries, they show only what the host wants meaning participants never notice the protests by indigenous groups or railway strikes that cripple a city. Once the tour is over, the host gets glowing reels on Instagram and fluff pieces describing their wonderful product with blurbs stating, “This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission but come at no extra cost to you.”

Suspicious slants and unoriginal advice

One website touts the benefits of slow travel and describes the lower carbon footprint of longer stays. Yet the influencer writes a surprising number of articles for short getaways like A Weekend in Pittsburgh and the Perfect 3 Days in Austin.

Another blog from a self-professed “content creator” and “online publisher running travel content sites,” wrote “A Guide to Saving Money on the Camino de Santiago.” In it, the author admits he’s never walked the Camino, and Spain isn’t in his well-respected affordable destinations guidebook.

After talking about the route and the weather, he quotes pilgrims with adjective-laden sentences alongside beautiful photographs while explaining why some make a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James. But his advice on saving money regurgitates published advice: pack light, stay in albergues and buy groceries instead of eating out.

How blogs work

Some travel bloggers ask readers to buy them a cup of coffee or gift them the annual fee to maintain their site. Nearly all sell ads like the award-winning blog focused on low-impact, responsible travel whose sponsors include a hotel company with thousand-room megaresorts.

While the pandering and disconnect between product and advertisers is nothing new, the latest trend is to form an affiliate partnership. Take the authors and their separate sites for the Naples and Camino articles. Click on their webpages and a second tab opens automatically in the background.

Booking.com, the Online Travel Agency powerhouse, now knows you’re interested in an article on Morocco. Once finished, it’s waiting on your browser ready to help book air to North Africa, find a hotel, arrange transfers and reserve a food tour of the medina, all in one convenient location. When you do, those “content creators” receive a cut.

Full editorial control

One blogger mentioned her free Sicilian food tour with the following caveat, “I had a complimentary guided tour courtesy of Palermo Street Food, but as always my opinions are my own and I maintain full editorial control.” Then she never flexed that control.

After describing the dishes she ate (and more that she passed up), she summarized her experience as, “Overall, I would definitely recommend Palermo Street Food Tours. If you’d like to book a street food tour with them, you can find all the information on their website” including a link to earn commission off your Palermo Street Food tour.

Beware the packing list

Another of my favorite blogs is the “packing list” expert. Here, a travel influencer gushes about a trip before detailing their “must have” travel gear where they try to make us believe that the trip they just raved about to a quaint town in Kosovo won’t be worth it without that new model suitcase from a well-known brand and pricey logoed shoes the author wore in every selfie for free in exchange for pitching them. Click on the associated links and you’ll be sent to Walmart.com or the Amazon product page where every purchase lines the blogger’s pockets.

Creative solutions

Some influencers get creative with their content by tweaking years-old posts and rebroadcasting them. Yet the updated Istanbul article never mentions how one of their highlighted sites is currently under renovation or explains that their highly recommended hotel hasn’t been seen by them in seven years.

As someone who worked in the industry, I know that property has likely gone through an ownership change, seen three or more general managers and had a revolving door at the executive chef position. Plus, if the hotel hasn’t gone through a soft refurbishment, it’s fallen from a high-end brand to a premium or even select property. In short, it’s not the same hotel the blogger once stayed in for free.

What does it mean for you?

Do I sound bitter that other travel blogs are making money? I’m not.

I do, however, think it’s important to understand the limits of online experts. That’s why my best travel advice has always been to cultivate a relationship with a good travel advisor, someone with connections, experience and their finger on the pulse of an industry with ever-changing options and rules. Find a professional who listens to your needs, understands your dreams and respects your limits. Because a good travel advisor is a magician, a masseuse and a therapist rolled into one—and worth every penny.

Whatever you do, don’t put your travel dreams in the hands of travel bloggers. They’re in it for reasons other than to make sure you have a seamless, carefree holiday.